Shattered
by YukitoK
Summary: What could have happened at Helm's Deep (according to the movie) and the reprecusions on poor old Aragorn. CHARACTER DEATH
1. Default Chapter

Title: Shattered 

By: Yukito Kinomoto 

Rated: PG no real violence. Some blood. 

E-mail: grissom500@yahoo.com 

Summary: A fanfic of the Two Towers movie. When that orc is running to blow up the wall and it explodes, this is what could have happened. There is Character death, you have been warned. 

Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't really want have to live up to that burden, all belongs to the almighty Tolkien. 

Spoliers: about three seconds in the TT movie, though if you've read the summary you've already spoiled it for yourself.   
  


"Bring him down Legolas!" 

The elf loosed an arrow, the orc stumbled but kept running. 

"Kill him!" 

Another arrow that did no good. 

"Kill him!" 

Then the world dissolved into light as the explosion blew open the wall, tearing through stone and flesh. Aragorn landed hard and he was knocked out of his senses. 

Legolas was thrown farther than his friend and the rock shards came, burying themselves in his pale skin. A larger fragment bashed him aside the face and his world went black long before he hit the hard ground. 

The orcs swarmed in. Aragorn recovered and he and Gimli fought long and hard. Gandalf arrived with Éomér and his men, and the battle was won. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Éowyn emerged from the caves and nearly ran into Aragorn. She blushed, "I am sorry my Lord." 

He spun to face her, "Éowyn, Legolas is missing. Please help us search for him." 

Her eyes widened and she nodded. There had been tears in his eyes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Éowyn carefully picked her way through the orc bodies and whenever she saw blond hair her heart gave a little panicked leap. She would turn the elf over, but it was never Legolas. 

"Ara...gorn..." came a broken voice. 

"Legolas!?" she called. 

"Ara...gorn..." said the pinched voice again. "Help...uhn." 

She finally spotted him and her heart twisted at what she saw, he was sitting against a chunk of broken wall. 

"Oh no, Legolas! ARAGORN!" She kneeled beside him. He was bleeding badly, his golden hair was matted with blood and the crimson liquid spilled freely from his head and ran down his face. She used a sleeve to clear his eyes and gently rubbed his fair face clear of dirt and blood. He still held his bow in bleeding hands, but the green leaf brooch had shattered. 

"Éowyn? Is that...you?" 

"Yes Master Elf." 

"I am spoiling your dress," his voice was gentle, but quavered in pain. 

"I care not. ARAGORN!" 

The man appeared over a pile of rubble. 

"What is it Lady?" 

"I HAVE FOUND HIM! HURRY!" 

"I...I...I...can not...breathe..." The elf gasped for air, "Ara...gorn...ah," His body gave a small jerk. 

"LEGOLAS!" Aragorn cried. 

At his word the elf tried to sit up, "Aragorn," he called softly. 

Aragorn hurriedly took his friend up. 

"Come Legolas, I will get you to Gandalf." He started picking his way through the bodies, "Éowyn, run ahead and tell Gandalf that we are coming." 

She took off as fast and true as one of Legolas' arrows. 

"Aragorn...Aragorn," Legolas whispered. 

"Yes Legolas?" 

"Take...take my bow from the Lady. Do not bury it with me." He caught the tears in his friend's eyes, "Urin...nallon nin mellon... do not mourn for me Aragorn...you have more important things... to worry about...now." Legolas' speech came harder and was blurred slightly. He was loosing focus on Aragorn's face. "Itoch...you are _estel_..." He coughed once and felt blood in his mouth, it ran down his pale cheek. 

"I...I...I will...I...will...come...for your...wedding..." He smiled in his pain, then his star-bright eyes fluttered closed, he breathed his last immortal breath, and went limp in Aragorn's strong arms. 

"NO LEGOLAS!" 

[Urin nallon nin mellon = do not cry my friend and Itoch = you] 

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Aragorn stood vigil over his friend's body that lay in state in an inner room of Helm's Deep. His pain went beyond emotion, and he shed no tear. 

Gimli sat dejectedly at the elf's side, his head bowed as if in deep thought, and his kind's secret words of lamentation on his lips. 

"Never would I have thought an elf's passing would grieve me so, but I find that never was none so dear to me as Legolas of Mirkwood," he said and looked at Aragorn. 

The man's grey eyes were dull and staring and he held one hand to his breast, over the Evenstar, as if his heart pained him. 

"Aragorn?" said Gimli worriedly. 

"Never mind Gimli," said Gandalf from the door, "He does not hear you." 

They stood there a long time, unmoving, and it was Aragorn who moved first. He strode to the elf's side and kneeled beside him. Wizard and Dwarf watched sadly as he ran a hand across Legolas' bruised face. "It was not meant to end this way. Our parting came too soon. Ea na gwiil nin mellon, nimarië." He kissed the elf's fair brow and then turned to Gimli, "Would you bear his quiver and knives for me Master Dwarf? I do not think I could bear their weight." 

"Gladly," said Gimli and glanced to a corner where the Archer's things lay. 

"Do not be grieved Aragorn," said Gandalf, "Even if you had time for such things, blaming yourself for his death will accomplish nothing." 

"And so what would you have me do Gandalf? Leave him here in this strange land where he died, away from his beloved trees, his father...everything he loved, and alone no less." 

Gandalf smiled sadly at the Ranger, "We will bury him 'neith a tree, and all the folk of Rohan will pay him tribute, for dying thus." 

"He should not have even been here! Where were his kin in his hour of need?" 

"Be not unjustly harsh in your pain, and thus say things you can not unsay. Lorien and Mirkwood are under attack and have their own problems." 

Aragorn shook his head, "Forgive me Gandalf." 

"There is nothing to forgive Aragorn, you lost a dear friend and ally today, as did we all, there is a need to mourn. But you must remember the living as you remember the dead. Your childhood name was Hope, do not keep the race of men from their hope because you are mourning, Legolas would not want it thus. For remember, he was a prince as well and knew what it was to bear duty." 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

Sorry again that it ended so abruptly. I'm working on it, if it makes you feel any better, it used to end at NO LEGOLAS, so you're lucky. LOL. 

-yuki 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two kind of... 

I made some small changes to the first chapter. Legolas is going to be buried under a tree, not burned. I reread some RotK and figured they would probably bury him. So here goes nothin' 

"Aye, that I know. He was a brave warrior and if I become half as good a King as he was a prince, Gondor will flourish." 

Gandalf smiled gently at Aragorn, "As I said He will always be remembered." 

Aragorn nodded stiffly and strode out of the room, a sudden longing to be outside and breathe the open air came upon him. He sat on the Deepening Wall and turned his gaze westward, as if he could render the mountains invisible and glimpse the Sea. And still he did not weep. 

Then there was an altogether unexpected noise. A lone gull wheeled high overhead and sang it's harsh song. 

"GO BACK!" cried Aragorn loudly, "Go back to the Sea and bear Legolas' soul with you!" 

The gull turned on a thermal and did not return. Aragorn felt a wave of hopelessness the like of which he had never known crash upon him. 

_If thou hearest the cry of the gull by the shore...___

"They heart shall rest in the forest no more," he whispered to the grey, unyielding sky. 

"Lord Aragorn would thee come down and speak with me?" said Eowyn. 

Aragorn jumped down and immediately sat, his back pressed against the cold stone wall. She placed herself next to him. 

"I will not offer thee consolation, for though thy heart begs for it, thy mind and spirit repel the thought. I see there are no words I could say that could comfort thee, so I will not try. But if you desire to speak of the sorrow on thy heart, know that I have suffered through many passings, if not one wo premature or painful." 

His bent head came up and he looked sidelong at her, his head still tipped, "Thank you Eowyn." He made a painful attempt at a smile, then took a shuddering breath and turned away from her. His shoulders began to shake and like everything else about him, the sobs were quiet, but sincere. She pulled him into her arms and stroked his hair as if she was Gilraen herself. She didn't cluck over him, or say anything; she just held him and realized in a rush that she did love this man, just not in the way she thought she did. He was a good friend, dear to her heart, but not as a lover would be. 

"I will send a messenger to Mirkwood," she said when he had straitened himself and had stopped weeping. 

"No Eowyn. Not yet. That wood has become far to perilous for any man." 

"Lord Aragorn, does thee not think that his father deserves to know?" 

"Elves are not humans Eowyn, their hearts are fragile and I fear Thranduil will need all his heart to battle the darkness that opposes him." 

"But Ara---" 

"Eowyn no! I was raised among Elves and have known Legolas and his father long. If Thranduil does not know of Legolas' death by now, he will soon. Elves are not humans and Thranduil knows his son is hurt, but better leave him in doubt about his death until the outcome of this war is decided. If the war is won I will visit him as a king and tell him. If the war is lost ..." he sighed, "It will not matter anyway, for all will fall into darkness and not even Elves will be able to drive it back." 

"You speak gravely lord, And I think thy words are true. But if even the Elves cannot conquer the dark, what hope is there for us?" 

Aragorn just shook his head and was silent.   



End file.
